Feds Use 'Secret Laws' to Justify Harassment of Americans

What Price Freedom?
Feds Use 'Secret Laws' to Justify Harassment of Americans
By LANCE GAY
Dec 10, 2004

Want to see the federal government's regulation authorizing airport security personnel to pat you down before boarding a plane? You can't. It's a secret rule.

Would you like to read the government regulation that says all passengers must present identification before being allowed on aircraft, or what sort of identification meets the government requirement? Sorry, you're out of luck. That's a secret law, too. They're just two of several secret regulations issued after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The intelligence bill that Congress sent to President Bush this week establishes a new "privacy council" that's responsible for reviewing government activities and ensuring that privacy rights of Americans are protected.

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The secret rules are an outgrowth of a 1974 law that allowed the Federal Aviation Administration to withhold from public disclosure any information "detrimental to the safety of persons traveling in air transportation." After 9/11, Congress transferred airport security to the newly created TSA in the Department of Homeland Security and broadened the FAA rule to cover anything that might be "detrimental to the security of transportation." The government is now declaring all forms of interstate transportation - including airplanes, buses, trains and boats - covered by the cloak of "sensitive security information" and moving to keep information from public scrutiny, said Todd Tatelman, an attorney with the Congressional Research Service.

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The Society of Environmental Journalists fears that the procedure will be used to withhold Freedom of Information Act information on roads used by trucks carrying nuclear wastes, for example. The TSA is even imposing its law on other government agencies. In May, the U.S. Coast Guard declared emergency plans by shipping companies and terminal operators should be "sensitive security information" because the government has determined they "must be protected from improper disclosure in order to ensure transportation security." The Department of Homeland Security has also taken steps to ensure that government employees don't spill the beans on what's in the documents. Two unions representing federal employees say nondisclosure documents require department employees and contractors to sign pledges to keep the sensitive information secret. The agency threatens civil penalties against anyone who discloses such information.

The TSA has conducted nine investigations of air marshals for allegedly talking to the media about their operations. Two marshals were threatened with arrest and prosecution. But Clark Ervin, Homeland Security's inspector general, noted that unlike the release of government secrets, the release of sensitive security information isn't currently a prosecutable offense. In a letter to outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge last month, the two unions - the National Treasury Employees Union and the American Federation of Government Employees AFL-CIO - complained that the restrictions on releasing sensitive security information are "unprecedented restrictions and conditions on the free speech rights" and are so broadly drafted they might even permit searches of the homes of government employees without warrants.


http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_5838.shtml

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And Bush* is nominating that corrupt POS Kerik? God have mercy on us.